“Oh Canada, our home and native land…” I don’t want to be a wet blanket on the Canada Day festivities but as I think of the history of this country, the Confederation we are marking, I can’t help thinking about the people whose backs we are standing on. Here is an article written by Susana Deranger that explains far better than I can, the blood shed by her ancestors at the hands of ours!

I recently wrote an article citing the cruelties that were perpetrated on the Natives of this country during colonization. I was reminded by a writing instructor that I was not telling the truth; that it would be prudent to mention that the Natives themselves were not entirely passive toward each other and inter-tribal wars existed here before the coming of the white man. I suppose, to explain that it is just human nature to conquer and kill, I could go all the way back to the garden of Eden and cite the story of Cain and Abel. My parents lost family members during WWII at the hands of the oppressors we call Nazis. I have to wonder why that suffering is recognized as valid and the Native losses are not. It is in the telling of our history that we are supposed to evolve our “human nature” into a more enlightened race of human being.